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KUALA LUMPUR – Amongst the craze of the pandemic, and as various sports have been slowing down with the Controlled Movement Control, the Malaysian Chess Federation shows no signs of retreating.
On the 27th November, the Paralympic chess team ended their turn in the International Chess Federation’s (FIDE) first-ever World Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities tournament, ranking 30th for Team 1 and 43rd of Team 2.
Apart from the gold medals that were won during the 2017 SEA Paralympic Games, this is the first time our Paralympic team has ever joined a World Level tournament.
Although the chess federation had some challenges in persuading their athletes to take part in this tournament, the state associations and state OKU chess associations have helped make it successful to register 50 Paralympians for it.
For many of us who are curious about how Paralympic chess is played, General Secretary of the Malaysian Chess Federation, Najib Wahab, generously shared with The Vibes the workings and accommodations made for this category.
“Rules are the same but with some variants especially for the physically handicapped (without arms or deformed arms), you need to move the pieces for them, and for the blind, they need to use special braille board.
“The moves made on the braille board is then copied onto a standard board in games where the blind plays against the seeing player.
“For the Paralympians, we need to help them to let them know what the moves were played, how much more time they have, and so on.
Wahab also shared that along with this, the Paralympic chess tournaments and opportunities have definitely helped the Paralympians to gain and develop confidence.
The World Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities was definitely a turning point for the Malaysian Chess Federation, as well as the Paralympic Council and OKU National Associations, and Wahab believes that this is just the beginning for the betterment of the sport.
However, the chess federation has not only been busy with their Paralympians but also on organizing their first National Hybrid Online Ladies Open Chess Championship.
This championship that will take place on the 19th to the 20th of December in an effort to further improve their efforts to accommodate the pandemic.
As the world is slowly moving online, the federation is also wary about the potential of athletes playing unfairly with help from others in the comforts of their home.
So, to curb this, the federation made the effort to meet players and this circumstance in the middle.
This hybrid tournament will be held online at selected centres. An arbiter will be at each centre to ensure that athletes are playing fairly. This would also limit the athlete’s travel to just one location instead of multiple locations as the tournament proceeds.
At the moment, there are 11 centres, but Wahab hopes to have more participate in this effort.
Overall, the chess federation has shown that a pandemic should not be a reason a sport slows down in their efforts to develop.
These efforts are also just part of Wahab’s dream to transcend chess beyond gender, age and size.
“It’s the mind that matters. It is a unique sport where you can pit an 80-year-old man to play against an 8-year-old boy. A muscular person against a scrawny thin opponent on a level playing field.” – The Vibes, November 30, 2020
